A Married Virgin

About the Book

The story begins in a small Indian town with a poor bright Muslim high school student, Ayub who becomes the center of attraction by his cross-dressing homosexual teacher, Jay. Jay also desires desperately to have a feminine body. His wife, Rambha, is a ravishing beauty who is forced to remain virgin due to Jay’s impotence. During one drama, (Ramalila), Jay wears a very attractive feminine attire and ornaments to act as a wife of God Rama in the play. Jay initiates a homosexual move and entices Ayub. Rambha’s mother-in-law blames her for infertility and threatens that she will get Jay married to a second wife. This constant pressure prompts Jay to ask Ayub to father a child through Rambha who opposes severely this proposal. After repeated efforts of persuasion, Rambha reluctantly agrees to be sexually involved with Ayub. Ayub’s gentle and affectionate approach leads to an intensely gratifying love relationship. In a few months Rambha becomes pregnant. At the same time Jay is promoted as a vice-principal in his school system and is transferred to a far away town, where his parents also live. Due to cultural constraints, communication between Ayub and Rambha is terminated. Rambha gives birth to a son, Arvind whose face resembles like a replica of Ayub’s face. Jay’s continuous hatred of his masculine body and other reasons, drive him to abandon suddenly wife and child and migrate to another location. Due to continuous harassment by her mother-in-law, Rambha conspires with her retiring father to escape to a big city, Ahmedabad. After passing his high school examination with flying colors, Ayub continues to struggle to earn a living and with passage of time becomes a multimillionaire and a philanthropist. Ayub gets married in a traditional Muslim way to a girl from his caste. Both Rambha and Ayub continue to pine for each other. Rambha starts working as a teacher in Ahmedabad, to save money for the education of Arvind who later becomes a doctor and gets a job in Bhimpur – a city 36 miles away from Ayub’s hometown. During her visit to Mayuri town after many years, Rambha enquires about Ayub and meets him with great joy. Ayub has an adult son, Aslam, who after his M.B.A. degree helps his father mainly in his Bombay business branch where his fun loving college friend, Rasik has become a manager. Rasik introduces Aslam to Bombay’s entertainment spots – including various levels of prostitution trade. Rasik describes his sexual encounters with sophisticated call girls. Rasik then becomes infected with HIV, so does his call girl friend, Neelam. Terrified, Rasik gets married in traditional Muslim way. His younger sister, Kulsum, gets posting as a doctor in a hospital in Mayuri town and eventually becomes involved in love with Hindu Dr. Parekh. Once more, tensions of Hindu-Muslim marriage emerge. Eventually these tensions are resolved. On Arvind’s insistence, mystery of remarkable resemblance between the face of Arvind and that of Ayub is revealed by Rambha. Arvind participates in search for Jay. Ayub and Arvind find him in a group of ‘hijras’ in Bombay. They persuade Jay to undergo sex change operation. Jay becomes like a woman and is named Jaya and later on works as an accountant in Ayub’s firm. During his college, Arvind had fallen in love with a Muslim girl, Nargis, who is coerced by her father to break up with him due to religious differences. Arvind eventually recovers from this trauma and gets his marriage partner, Saryu, who is a lawyer, with the help of matrimonial ads. With efforts and help of Ayub, Arvind starts working in the clinic of Kulsum and Dr. Parekh, while Saryu practices law in Mayuri town court. Aslam continues to help his HIV infected friend Rasik, whose marriage with Neelam he witnesses. The story ends with grand celebration of Kulsum’s marriage with Dr. Parekh and visit to Ayub’s childhood home. Epilogue describes status of relationships of characters after 5 years.

About the Author

Dr. A.A. Khatri is a retired Emeritus Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He was a Fulbright Professor of Psychology at Jacksonville University for two years. He worked as a senior Clinical Psychologist for over twelve years at B.M. Institute of Psychology at Ahmedabad, India. He was a lecturer in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology at Samaldas College, Bhavnagar, India, and later Vocational Guidance Officer at Bombay. He has written a book, “Marriage and Family Relations through Literature,” co-edited two books in Psychology and Sociology, contributed chapters in books and published a number of papers in the fields of Psychology and Sociology. Dr. A.A. Khatri holds degrees of M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of London, England, and M.A. LL. B. from Bombay University, India.